Texas Tech Red Raiders Win 2009 BCS National Championship!!!

http://www.hemifoundation.org/

http://www.prayforjessie.org/


Texas Tech Red Raiders Win 2009 BCS National Championship!!

OK, Maybe that Title is a bit premature, but with guys like these two above...well, ANYTHING could happen!!!

Do I really need to tell you who these two guys are?!?!?! #5 is Michael Crabtree! #6 is Graham Harrel ! Do I need to tell you more? These guys are only the number 1 receiver in the NCAA and the number 1 quarterback in the NCAA !!

These guys are part of the team that will lead the Texas Tech Red Raiders to the Jan. 8, 2009 - BCS National Championship Game in Miami!!! And with character like this, just the type of team leaders that can do it.

Thanks Graham and Michael for doing such a cool thing for a sick kid. With any luck, Jessie and the rest of us will be in Lubbock to watch you defeat Nebraska for homecoming. We have the phone on speed-dial for Monday when the tickets go on sale, because we know they'll go fast.

We've NEVER missed a Homecoming game!! Since 1983!!

Once again, thanks for doing such a cool thing for Jessie. Now go lift some weights, or run bleachers, or catch tennis balls from that tennis-ball-shooting-machine-thingy!! Do something!! First game is just around the corner and we EXPECT a National Championship this year!!!

Jessie has already inspired one National Championship this year (Aledo Ladycats High School Softball), so I don't see why she can't inspire an NCAA Football Championship. Just Believe!

Go! Fight! Win!

Hit'em! Wreck'em! Graham and Michael!

Cris Hall - TTU 1988, Kristi Hall - TTU 1987, Matt Hall - TTU 2017, Jake Hall - TTU 2018, Josh Hall - TTU 2018, Jessie Hall - TTU 2020!

P.S. Please tell Coach Leach that Jessie wants to tell him a "pirate" joke the next time she sees him. "What is a pirate's favorite letter?" ...."ARRRRRR !"

Special Thanks to Graham and Michael...and the crew in media relations, Chris Cook, Tammi Hoffman and Blayne Beal. Also, Thanks Steve Maines.

http://www.hemifoundation.org/

http://www.prayforjessie.org/

Things Get Better Each Day and More Visitors!

http://www.hemifoundation.org/

http://www.prayforjessie.org/

It's Friday, and Jessie has been at Cook Children's Hospital's "Transitional Care Unit" now for a week. Can you believe that? We've been here a week and Jessie has made phenomenal progress. I can't believe what has happened just in one week.

Jessie is walking!! We have to walk with her and hold a belt in case she trips...but she IS walking on her own!! Can you believe that!!! Things get better each day!

Today, she wanted to hop like a frog and she did....she wanted to bend down and pick something up and she did. When we got here a week ago, she could only stand and still needed about 50% assistance to walk. Now she wants to walk everywhere...even to therapy.

Thanks and Praise to God for watching over Jessie and healing her. And Thanks to Johns Hopkins Children's Center, Kennedy Krieger Institute, and Cook Children's Medical Center for providing the hands and guided by their talents from God to make things happen. Everyone: The doctors, surgeons, specialists, nurses, techs, nutritionists, therapists, child life, pastoral, and of course all the friends who visited to lift Jessie's spirits.

Jessie hasn't had any seizures since surgery on June 11th. I went back and watched newscasts before the surgery, and I couldn't believe how bad her seizures were. I had forgotten how much she twitched.

Below is a short clip from KTVT of Jessie up here at Cooks. It's a well done segment.
http://cbs11tv.com/video/?id=30600@ktvt.dayport.com

Jessie's Aunt Cyndi and Cousins Kacie, Adam, and Colton. Also Mom and her Stinky Brothers. You can see it on her face how happy she is to be back around family again. I think that having family and friends close accelerates the whole healing staff. Perhaps that is a reason to go ahead and start trying to get her home to Aledo. Hopefully we won't be up here at Cooks more than a couple of weeks more.

Thanks to Aunt Cyndi and the kids for helping us out the past week. We appreciate it guys and have a safe trip back to Lincoln, Nebraska.

Here's Jessie riding the rehab bike. She does really well, and can pretty much drive it herself.

The Adamies came for a visit today. Brett, Jessie, Nicki, and Shelly.

Look at these guys. They really lit up her face!!

After a hard day of rehab, it's time to drift off to a pink dream. You have to wonder how she got that left arm way above her head like that.... We didn't put it there.

After reading the book "Pinkalicious" today, she asked me tonight if too much pink would turn you pink. I told her no that it couldn't really happen. Thank goodness, or she would already be pinker than cotton candy.

Medical Notes: They've asked us to do some Botox injections on her thumb to loosen it up, however, based on an FDA warning and advice from quite a few friends of Hemi kids, we have chosen to not do Botox injections. We haven't heard of any hemi kids who get lasting results from them..and they can be very painful.

They are beginning to look at new ideas for orthotics as well for both her hand and leg. I can't wait to see what they try next and how that affects her use.

Jessie has some very random, but semi-purposeful movements in her right arm, but Dr. Carson tells us that it is just her brain rewiring. It is evidently normal for these kids.

She has had some nausea and vomiting in previous days, but none in the past 2 days. She looks really good.

God Bless all of you for keeping up with Jessie and for your prayers.

I hope that everyone has a fabulous weekend.

WJZ Baltimore to Run Farewell to Jessie Story Tonight

I just heard from our Baltimore representative of The Hemispherectomy Foundation (thanks Jane), that WJZ will run a feature story tonight saying farewell to Jessie and welcome home to Texas. There is a teaser out on http://wjz.com/ right now, but the big story runs tonight and they are usually pretty quick to get it up on their website.

So check out http://wjz.com/ tonight sometime after 10:00 PM CST, and it should be posted. I beleive that Channel 11 may be running something as well if they get the footage that they need from Cook Children's Medical Center.

In Celebration of Jessie's Homecoming, The Hemispherectomy Foundation is excited to announce that after the broadcast, The Hemispherectomy Website will be on-line!!! So after the broadcast, be sure to check out http://www.hemifoundation.org .

Blessings to all for all of your prayers, comfort, support, and work in making The Hemispherectomy Foundation a reality!!

Kristi, Cris, Caren, John

Visitors from Stuard Elementary and Jessie's Walker

http://www.prayforjessie.org


Here's Jessie trying out her new walker. Go Girl !! For some reason she thought this was really cool, and that Mom and Dad would be upset that she got to use a walker...so we played along and Jessie got some good therapy.

Jessie had a bunch of visitors from Stuard Elementary. Thanks Guys!!!

Here's a Video of Jessie walking with her walker!!!
Go Jessie Go!!

http://www.prayforjessie.org

Pinkalicious!!!

http://www.prayforjessie.org/

Jessie had some visitors up at Cook Children's Hospital the past two days. Her spirits are up, and Jessie knows that she is close to home. We so much appreciate all the well wishes from everyone

When we got to the airport, we were greeted by the Jennings crew, Gleatons, Kelms and Shields. It was extremely touching and overwhelming to be greated by everyone and the ballons and signs were marvelous.

At the Hospital, there was more of the same, and Jessie finally got to see her Grandma and brothers again.

For those of you who have seen Jessie, you know that she is doing remarkably well. For those of you who haven't, I must tell you that she is doing very well. There is no memory loss, no personality loss, no speech loss, and no cognitive loss. She has some vision loss in each eye (hemianopsia), and her left leg and left arm are VERY weak (paresis). She is able to stand, and walk with some assistance now, and we see improvement daily.

Here is Jessie and her buddy Alexandra. Even the smile is less crooked!!

From Left to Right (me, Kraig Smith, Scott Grooms, Shelly Smith, Val Grooms, and somewhere running around are Cassi, Alexandr, Ayden and Ashton)

Alexandra, Jessie, Cassi

Robin Seay (Jessie's Principal at Stuard Elementary) Also, Jessie's bus driver, Miss LaShaunda (or as Jessie would say Miss MaShawnda) and a friend came for a visit, but we forgot to take a picture.

Kristi's Sister and Jessie's cousins arrived from Nebraska today. Aunt Cyndi, then Jake, Casey, Adam, and Colton arrived just in time to see the arrival of the pinkalicious wheelchair from Sujata.

Also, Jessie's Uncle Alan, and Grandma were there for a visit today, but they were a bit camera shy.

The pimped-0ut wheel chair was donated by Sujata in it's raw form and decorated by some pink angels.

Jennie Suchocki and her daughter. Caren Jennings, Traci Cottrell. There is no other wheel chair like it in the world.

Matt pushing his little sister around in her new ride.

The brothers gettin some lovin from Jennie.

I need to go to work, so these late nights are going to have to stop. It's way too late to be staying up on a school night.

God Bless! Cris